Aryan gang member marks last of 73 convictions in statewide probe

Updated 1:22 pm, Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Rusty Duke became the last of 73 members and associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas to plead guilty to racketeering and related crimes, including a murder, in a five-year statewide probe.

Rusty Duke became the last of 73 members and associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas to plead guilty to racketeering and related crimes, including a murder, in a five-year statewide probe.

Photo: TDCJ

Aryan gang member marks last of 73 convictions in statewide probe

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As he stood in shackles before a federal judge Wednesday, Rusty Duke became the last of 73 members and associates of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas to plead guilty to racketeering and related crimes, including a murder, in a five-year statewide probe.

Duke, who is allegedly a captain in the Texas prison-born gang where membership is for life and betrayal brings a punishment of death, ordered subordinates to shoot a fellow gang member suspected of stealing drugs from the organization, according to court documents.

The investigation, which was led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, weaved its way through Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and other cities.

Gang members engaged in an array of brutality, including murder, mutilation and kidnappings mostly ordered by their superiors to keep order within the organization, according to court documents.

Most of the victims were members of the gang as well as their associates, according to the investigation, which drew assistance from the FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other agencies.

The hearing before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake was a sobering way for Duke, who is from Dallas, to mark his 33rd birthday.

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By pleading guilty to conspiring to engage in racketeering, Duke faces up to 18 years behind bars, and stands a chance one day of walking out of prison. If he had gone to trial he faced the prospect of being locked up the rest of his life.

Unlike Duke, some members, including at least one former general, have cooperated with authorities - by sharing the organization's secrets with authorities - in exchange for further leniency. Others have asked the judge to make sure their court files are not sealed so that it can be known they have not snitched.

The national spotlight shined on the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas last year over later debunked concerns it was involved with the murder of a Kaufman County district attorney as well as his wife and a top prosecutor.

That led in part to a Houston-based federal prosecutor resigning from the ongoing Aryan gang probe for the case over safety concerns.

He was replaced by another local prosecutor, and it turned out the gang had nothing to do with those murders. A former justice of the peace has been charged with the killings.